Xel-Ha, near Tulum, expensive and not as good as it once was
30.06.2022
I first visited Xel-Ha with Bobby Ibarra in 1990; I've visited several times since but the snorkeling now offers little to see in the way of marine life; the lighthouse, 131 ft high, did have great views but the waterslide was super slow going down
Xel-Ha is now owned by Xcaret, a neighboring attraction, that seems to own most of the big tourist draws in the area; their advertising is hard to miss as these attractions are obviously making lots of money while offering a Disney-like experience
Yucatan jays, common and endemic to the Yucatan peninsula, are usually found in groups of 5-25 birds, often chattering noisily; the bill is black on adult birds, yellow on juveniles and 1st-year birds
Xel-Ha admission now runs $100 with lots of optional extras (that we didn't buy); food and drinks were included so Lee enjoyed a nice lunch but, in hindsight, we would have been better off taking a boat out to the reef off Tulum to snorkel
Florida set a record of 1000+ manatee deaths in 2021 as their primary feeding ground, the Indian River Lagoon, has lost an estimated 58% of its seagrasses over the last 11 years; you could pay $80 to swim with the well-fed manatees here
We were very impressed with the trained dolphins and the show they put on but preferred to watch others interact with them rather than pay the $160 each ourselves
Mexican spinytail iguanas are very common with the ones at Xel-Ha spoiled by food tourists drop; considered the squirrels of Mexico, the world record sprint speed for lizards (21.5 miles/h) is owned by a spinytail iguana
Xcaret Group has revenues of roughly $230 million annually with plans to add 5 more hotels and another feature attraction next year; the highway from Cancun was very congested, in poor repair and still has lots of stoplights
In 2009 Xel-Há, located 8 mi N of Tulum, was the first park in the world to achieve the most important sustainability certification in the tourist industry; the park releases an annual average of 97,000 specimens of turtle hatchlings on the beaches of Xel-Há
Great kiskadees, found from southern Texas to Argentina, are a common, but noisy, bird in urban areas where they are monogamous and territorial; like many members of the flycatcher family, the great kiskadee can catch insects in mid-air or on the ground
Trepachanga, one of the more fun areas of the park, features a challenging series of adventures set above the water; I opted to float by in my inner tube which required serious paddling since there was virtually no current
Scarlet macaws typically live 40-50 years but, in captivity, some have lived 90+ years; their population is centered around the Amazon basin with scattered pockets throughout Central America and Mexico (though not the Yucatan)
No one seemed to pay much attention to waterspouts forming off the coast; after Xel-Ha, Lee and I made a quick stop to see the beach in Tulum and were shocked at the development, traffic congestion and packed beaches there
The black-bellied whistling duck is quite unique among ducks in their strong monogamous pair-bond; population of the ducks has increased substantially since the 1950s, partly due to nest boxes which protect their eggs from predators
Posted by VagabondCowboy 04:47 Comments (0)